Athletics: Ireland's final throw at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka ended in disappointment today as Colin Griffin and Jamie Costin failed to complete the Men's 50km walk for differing reasons.
Leitrim walker Griffin was disqualified at 17K, while Costin had to pull out of the race with 7K left as he was suffering from cramp. The pair were the final two Irish athletes in action in what has largely been considered a successful Irish campaign.
High points involved Robert Heffernan and Eileen O'Keefe as both finished sixth in their respectively disciplines; the Men's 20Km walk and Women's Hammer. Paul Hession and Joanne Cuddihy missed out on medals but both broke Irish 400m records.
On a less positive note both Derval O'Rourke and David Gillick only got as far as their respective semi-finals.
"This was a defining Championships for us," said Irish Team
manager Patsy McGonagle. "We had some excellent performances and
two top six finishes including several finals, so we achieved all
our targets in that respect."
"This is a young and developing team, which can stay together for a long time. It all bodes well for the future of Irish athletics and the fact we had athletes who were disappointed not to make finals shows a new attitude among our athletes," added McGonagle.
Brendan Hacektt, head of Athletics Ireland, also heaped praise on the Irish team. "It was fantastic to see so many athletes go to the Championships and perform well, achieving personal bests or close to them. Great credit must go to the athletes and their coaches for this."
"Normally it takes years for systems like a high performance programme to come to fruition, but these Championships have shown us that the structures are now really benefiting our athletes. We can now push on towards Beijing and London in 2012 with genuine hopes of competing for medal places."